Last Week in the CCM (MTC)!

Hola, mis amigos y mi familia!

So this is my last P-day in the MTC and my last week here! We got our travel plans last Thursday.... We leave Sunday the 29th at 8:30 for a 12:30 A.M. flight to ATL. I think that I get to call you then, so I may email you sometime during the week to confirm when I can call you at the airport. Okay and we'll get into ATL around 6:30 and then we head off to Costa Rica! We should get in to the "Patria Noble" (Costa Rican motto) around 11:45-12:00ish Mountain Standard Time. So yep I am really excited to be getting out into the field! And I've heard that we're going to start working as soon as we get there!

So if you have any packages for me, please send them so I can get them this week before I leave. Uhm, I don't remember my Costa Rica address but Mom and Dad if you could put that on here that would be awesome.

Elder Ryan Taylor

Costa Rica San Jose Mission

APDO 249-2010, San Jose

San Jose, Costa Rica

So this week was really good. Vaughn J. Featherstone spoke at the Tuesday devotional. He is so amazingly awesome. Wasn't he your mission president in San Antonio, Dad? Well he was really cool. He memorized his whole talk and he told a ton of stories. He's super old though so it was kind of hard to understand him. I liked this one story he told about his "slow" niece that served a mission, and how she would not take no for an answer and because of this she was able to bring a runaway daughter back to her LDS parents. Haha, that last sentence probably didn't make sense but Dad may have heard the story, I don't know.

Well anyways everyone is just beginning to prepare to leave now, it's really weird because our district has grown so close and now we won't see each other except at zone conferences or if we get lucky in a companionship in about a year. I really hope that I can get a native Costa Rican companion so I am forced to use Spanish, because my rudimentary Spanish is just not going to cut it, haha. But I am so excited!

And I am so excited for Allison's baptismal date. I know that this decision will be the greatest one she has made so far in life, and that she will feel the spirit in greater abundance after her baptism. It makes me think of Mosiah 18:8-10, which talks about the promise of baptism, and a little about the baptismal covenant.

Well, I don't have much to say anymore. How's Aunt Deanna holding up? I'm glad that Ralph was able to give her such a comforting blessing. He really is a selfless husband with grandpa and the kids. Let her know she's in my prayers, and I'll put her name down in the Costa Rican temple. I think this trial will be a great blessing to their family. It reminds me of this saying, "Man's extremities are Gods opportunities." God will put us through things that we believe we cannot handle. Jeffrey R. Holland gave a talk at the MTC a while ago and quoted this French poem...

He yelled at me and told me to come to the edge.

"No" I said, "I will fall off."

He yelled again and said "Come to the edge."

"No" i said again, "I will fall off!"

He yelled again and said, "COME TO THE EDGE!"

So I came...

And he pushed me...

And I flew

It sounds a lot better when Jeffrey R. Holland is saying it but it is so applicable to every life. Our Father in Heaven is going to push us to limits that we thought were never possible, and if we heed his promptings and forget ourselves, we have the opportunity to fly. That’s something that I have really gained a testimony of since being in the MTC. It feels like God asks so much of us, but when we do heed his promptings and do his will, it all works out in the end, and we become 10x the person we ever dreamed of becoming. I am so thankful for this mission and for how it is changing my life so immensely. This gospel is the most amazing thing on the earth, and I am so grateful and humbled to have the opportunity to bring it to the people of Costa Rica.

I love you Mom and Dad, and Jason, Eric, Shelby, Katie, Cam Cam, and Joshua. I pray for you every day and I cannot wait till we can be together as a family in the Celestial Kingdom. That is going to be RAD!!! I cannot wait. Haha it's kind of like when Alma the Younger is talking about "if only I were an angel..." Haha but nevertheless I love life and all its difficulties, especially for the chance that I have to progress in this gospel. I love all of you and the next time you hear from me I'll probably be sweaty, covered in giant roaches and tarantulas in the city of San Jose Costa Rica! Love you all!

Love,

Elder Taylor

P.S. So we were talking about the bugs in Costa Rica. Yuck. I guess there are a ton of tarantulas and they just chill in your apartment and crawl on you while you’re sleeping. Same with those hissing cockroaches. And they have Mosques ( I think) That’s mosquito minus the -ito part haha. Well, if i don't come home from my mission I probably got carried away by a giant bug or eaten by one haha. Okay love you all! Bye.